The Museum party on the sunburned stony plain. Note four pyramids in distance, at extreme right.] “He isn’t as large,” was the reply. “The Saghatherium was bigger, and he was a fighter, too. Herds of them ran over this plain in Eocene times, and with their fighting tusks, a pack of them would have been an ugly foe to meet. Do you remember the tusks, Perry?” “I think I do,” answered the lad truthfully, “but I’m not quite sure. I didn’t pay much heed to them, when I was in the Museum. But I will when I get back, you bet.” “You needn’t go to the Zoo to see a coney,” said the professor, squinting in the bright sunlight. “If I’m not mistaken, there’s one off there amid the rocks. See him?” and he pointed to a crevice. Perry shaded his eyes with his hand. “Oh, yes,” he said, “I spot him. He’s hard to see, though, against the rock. Looks a little like a rabbit.” “And yet he’s more nearly related to an elephant than a rabbit,” the professor commented. “As I was telling you, Perry, looks don’t count for a great deal.” Conversation dropped as the ascent became stiffer. The caravan was going up the steep ravines which form the only way between the level on which the ruined temple stands and the next bench, atop of the great cliff rising four hundred feet above them. One of the baggage camels, which had a pair of weak hind-legs, refused at first to try to make the climb and had to be pushed from behind by all the drivers together, while its bubbling roar filled the ravine with hideous noise. The steep slopes also put a strain on the loads and many of them came off. “Seems to me these camel-drivers ought to learn to throw the diamond hitch,” suggested Perry, as the second load fell to the ground. His uncle looked at him quizzically. “Did you ever throw one?” he asked. “Never,” the lad replied. “I thought not,” commented the leader of the expedition, “or you wouldn’t talk so glibly about doing it over a camel’s wobbly hump. You’ve got to have something solid, like a mule’s ribs, if you want to tighten cinches to that extent.” “I suppose the Arabs know best, at that,” the boy admitted. “After all, these Egyptian chaps have been loading camels for a good many thousand years.” “Exactly. And besides, Perry, this climb is unusual traveling for camels. They’re accustomed to the level or to the slopes of sand dunes. Except for the Egyptian Survey, which discovered this bone deposit a few years ago, probably no one has taken the trouble to climb this cliff since the days that Lake Moeris occupied a large part of the valley below.” On the next tier above, Perry suddenly found a vast change in the character of the rock and saw thousands of beautiful sea-shells in the solid limestone scattered on every side. Off his camel he jumped again, and filled his pockets with bits of stone containing the shells. They were heavy to carry in the intense heat, when every extra ounce counted, but he simply could not pass them by.